Cambridge Colleges and Churches

After Church this morning, we visited several of Cambridge's colleges and chapels.  In many of the churches the organists and choristers were practicing for Evensong  and so we got to look at stained glass and Gothic vaults while listening to beautiful music.  This is the window above the altar in the church of Great St. Mary's.

The parish of St. Edward and the English Martyrs is an unassuming church tucked into an alleyway near King's College.  This sanctuary, however, was the "cradle of the English Reformation."  The first public sermon with overtly Protestant leanings was preached here during Midnight Mass in the early sixteenth century.  The original pulpit still exists, and the avid reformer, Hugh Latimer, delivered controversial homilies here before he was burned at the stake by the Catholic Queen Mary.

More glowing, technicolor-green grass in the courtyard of Corpus Christi College.  The chapel in the background had sixteenth-century stained glass from Germany, and the organ was blaring a Bach fugue that nearly shook the walls.  It was spectacular!

Pembroke College reminds me of an English manor house.  The courtyards lead into gardens with hidden passageways and overgrown vines.  Walking through these colleges is like being in a dream--each time you duck through the wooden doors with iron locks leading into the grounds it feels like you've gone back in time.

The Fitzwilliam Museum has a nice collection of paintings with an imposing Roman temple facade and an elaborate entryway inside with a huge staircase, domed ceiling, and multi-colored marbles.  After the museum we went to Evensong (the Anglican evening prayer) at Trinity College.  We were a few minutes late, and we had to wait for the opening prayers to be completed before entering.  I slipped in right after the "amen" with my sister following close behind.  I couldn't see any good seats in the candle-lit choir stalls, and so I kept walking up to a higher level of stalls.  My sister followed, and we sat down on red velvet upholstery under the carved wood backing just as the choir began to sing.  My sister turned to me with a look of horror on her face.  "We're sitting in the fellows' seats, and we're not supposed to be here."  I looked around, and sure enough there were a lot of distinguished looking professors in "Harry Potter" robes.  "And," my sister added, with even more fear in her voice, "you're sitting right next to the Master of the College!"  The Master is an elderly, knighted dignitary who was in his own box, adjoining the pew we were on.  I was afraid, too, but fortunately the Master did not summon the guards to drag us away to the tower for execution.  Instead he smiled, and then turned his attention back to the service.  Phew!  Evensong was beautiful.